Future Rally Star 2017 - Emil Lindholm

Lindholm continues famous rallying dynasty after being chosen as Future Rally Star.

Up-and-coming rally star Emil Lindholm has been chosen as Future Rally Star of Finland by AKK Sports, the promotional arm of Finland’s motorsport federation, which also organises the country’s famous round of the World Rally Championship.

This prestigious award comes with a unique prize: a fully-funded drive on Neste Rally Finland in the Junior World Rally Championship from July 27-30, at the wheel of a turbocharged Ford Fiesta R2 against some of the most promising stars in the sport.

The 5 finalists, who all had to be under the age of 25, earned their spot in the shootout for the drive based on their performances during the first half of this year’s Finnish Rally Championship, as they had to be in the top five of the SM3 class to be eligible.

A final selection took place at Vierumaki in southern Finland over two days this week. This crucial assessment tested reconnaissance and pacenote-making skills, mental strength, physical fitness, and media awareness.

Lindholm comes from a well-known motorsport background as his father is Sebastian Lindholm: a former Peugeot factory driver and the cousin of two-time World Rally Champion Marcus Gronholm. Not only that, but the 20-year-old Finn is also an extremely adaptable all-rounder, taking part not only in rallying but racing as well, with the ADAC GT Masters Series in Germany this year. In the past, he’s also raced in the Porsche GT3 Cup Trophy Finland, as well as the Audi Sport TT Cup.

His rally experience includes outings on the Finnish Rally Championship, as well as on the ADAC Opel Rallye Cup in Germany. On Neste Rally Finland next month, Lindholm will go back to his roots – as the first stage rally he competed on was back in 2013 with a Ford Fiesta ST. His very beginnings in the sport came just one year earlier, through rallysprints in Finland: an established route for youngsters to get involved in motorsport.

“I’m very happy and very surprised as I certainly wouldn’t have said that I was favourite to win the prize this year,” said Lindholm. “It’s a huge honour, because if you look at the other people who have won the Future Rally Star prize before me, they have gone on to achieve some great things. I really hope that I can follow in their footsteps. I’ve been driving for as long as I can remember, but this is definitely the biggest recognition I have ever had.”

Previous winners of the award include current WRC2 star Teemu Suninen (2014) who will make his WRC debut in Poland, Junior European Rally Championship frontrunner Jari Huttunen (2015) and last year’s winner Juuso Nordgren.

As well as competing on Neste Rally Finland as his prize, Lindholm has also decided to compete on the Junior World Rally Championship in Rally Poland first: the next round of the series, based on fast gravel roads around Mikolajki in the north east of Poland from June 29-July 2.

“I’m hoping that this will be a good test experience for Rally Finland,” added Lindholm, who is co-driven by Tomi Tuominen: a former factory World Rally Championship navigator, who has sat alongside Toni Gardemeister in the past as well as being an accomplished TV presenter.

“For Finland, my only goal is to finish: I don’t want to make any more predictions than that,” concluded Lindholm. “But it would be great if I was able to set some fastest stage times as well. I know this is an amazing opportunity, so I must make the most of it. The realisation is just beginning to sink in now!”

Neste Rally Finland promoter Jani Backman, who has been involved in the scheme since it was inaugurated in 2014, commented: “We selected Lindholm based on his speed and the skills he showed in the Finnish Rally Championship. On top of that, he was also the most complete package, without any major weaknesses.”